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Comment by papito | Hacker News Reader

I would just like to point out that Sikorsky, the company that makes the damn Black Hawk helicopter, was sold for $9 billion. These valuations are not rooted in reality.

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I do agree that valuations are inflated.

Also, I think that the total addressable market for luggage vs. a Black Hawk are very different.

“Rotary and Mission Systems, which makes Sikorsky helicopters and ships, ended the year strong with quarterly net sales up 14 percent to $4.35 billion from $3.81 billion.“

Quarterly. That’s a lot of luggage. Also you can’t easily replicate a Blackhawk from the same factory and slap a badge on it.

Unsure of the margins, but there seems to be plenty of wiggle room, and contracts run into the 10s of billions for major buyers like Saudi Arabia.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-lockheed-results/lockheed...

Why Sikorsky is not worth a lot of money money Sales were up 14% year of year... which is meh compared to tech companies. In 2015 they made $51 Million for the entire year. so their margins are tiny. crappy business to be in - but consistent.

https://www.bizjournals.com/washington/blog/fedbiz_daily/201...

Sure, but a lot of these companies are not even profitable. The HOPE of massive profits seems to be worth more than the proof that a business can be in the black. And Sikorsky, honestly, could probably have higher margins, but they are in the business where billions disappear on boondoggles.

You're right, and the market for the Black Hawk is better.

I guarantee Away used some ridiculous number to cite their audience. Something like "The 500 TRILLION dollar GLOBAL travel market."

Totally right. Especially when one of your clients (US military) has a $693,058,000,000 budget.

Not sure how the valuation of a company that makes helicopters and sells them to governments is related to a company that makes luggage?

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